Why does apple get all the heat for Foxconn, there are a ton of major electronics suppliers that have foxconn in their supply chain.

I was wondering this. Is it just because it's apple? and apple makes news? Cause everything is made in china and apple products are a small small part of the picture here. Your tv's, pc's, speakers, headphones, remote controls, stereo's, ups's, power bar's, extension cords, razors, kitchen appliances, furnaces, calculators, shirts, pants, jackets, shoes, pencils, pens, cutlery, and so on and so forth are made in china.

Look around you and chances are everything you see is made or it's components are made in china. The electronics are just a small part of it, and apple is just a small part of the electronics from foxconn.

And at the end of the day... do we care how chinese workers are treated? It's up to their people to make changes. Not us.

Outsourcing creates the middle class in countries. A lot of businesses are actually 'in-sourcing' back to the US due to the rise in labour costs. However factories won't shift out of Asia for a while now due to geographically being close to source materials. If Chinese labour costs cost too high, they'll likely shift factories to India, not Africa as you need to be close to resources (importing raw resources costs a lot of $$$ both in shipping costs and time) but not only that, you need the labour expertise e.g. electrical engineers.

You are only forgetting one simple fact friend....

Most cost incurred to run a business is paid by the consumer, more or less.... (Thought not always)
On Topic....

I think this mentality has been seen before throughout history, that mentality is...

Except that they didn't put the nets up because of threats, when people are actually jumping out of the windows I don't think monetary compensation is what they had in mind.

Quote:

According to Ngai and Chan,who did extensive research on the Foxconn suicides, “the Shenzhen Municipal Trade Union and Shenzhen University, based on the joint survey of 5,000 young migrant workers in Shenzhen city during April and June 2010, found that the respondents’ average monthly wage was only 1,838.6 yuan (US$267).” (Chan & Ngai 2010) If we assume that the average Foxconn production floor worker had a career span that corresponded to the workers of Ngai’s factory, 5 years, and if we take into account the fact that the Foxconn workers saw little if any pay raises in the years leading up to this event, then we can calculate the wages accrued from a factory career to amount to approximately 110,316 yuan. Now, according to Bruce Blanch, a BBC correspondent, the amount offered to a worker’s family should the worker die on site was 100,000 yuan. This means that the amount of money paid should a worker die amounted to nearly as much money as they would have made during their entire career with the factory. Assuming that one of the primary functions of going to the factory was to send money home to support the family, then the work of an entire factory career could be accomplished with one simple jump.

Except that they didn't put the nets up because of threats, when people are actually jumping out of the windows I don't think monetary compensation is what they had in mind.
Ok, the Chinese government has "starved 20-40 million people to death in four years" on their list of accomplishments, top that.

I'm glad that this is finally getting some attention from mainstream media (this is not the first time employees at foxconn have done stuff like this). But this is not something that is primarily Apples fault. I'm sure they have been aware of the conditions for long enough though so I wont be buying any apple or foxconn products anymore

I'm glad that this is finally getting some attention from mainstream media (this is not the first time employees at foxconn have done stuff like this). But this is not something that is primarily Apples fault. I'm sure they have been aware of the conditions for long enough though so I wont be buying any apple or foxconn products anymore

Good luck. Let's just say that keyboard of yours.....
Computer products are a dirty business. Not to mention that large multinationals offer the best work conditions as the can afford the more expensive labour and better factories.

I'm glad that this is finally getting some attention from mainstream media (this is not the first time employees at foxconn have done stuff like this). But this is not something that is primarily Apples fault. I'm sure they have been aware of the conditions for long enough though so I wont be buying any apple or foxconn products anymore

You really think work conditions in other Chinese factories are better? Boycotting Apple because of this is ignorance. Work conditions where your mouse, monitor, keyboard, and clothes were made are likely worse.

In the end it's not the consumer's role to regulate work conditions. That's laughable really. The Chinese government has the power (the absolute power, as it's a totalitarian state) to make work conditions however they like, but FYI this is exactly how they want it. They still have peasants in the countryside without electricity to worry about. They'll keep taking the billions upon billions earned with cheap labor (enforced through currency manipulation by the central gov), and once they're ready they'll work on boosting internal consumer demand.

These articles are simple attempts to get pageviews by putting Apple in the headline, nobody should ever even click on them. If they want to learn about Chinese work policies and conditions, there are better sources than "itworld.com".Edited by mechtech - 3/31/12 at 8:12pm

That had crossed my mind, thanks for getting the specifics. I really have a hard time believing that five years salary would be worth dying over, but, if people are really desperate I guess rationality isn't always a top priority.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chinesekiwi

A strawman argument.

Point taken. Arguing that one civilization is "less bad" doesn't help to improve anything.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Malcolm

Read up on Native American genocide and the number of foreign civilians killed in all the various conflicts the US has perpetrated. The nuking of two Japanese cities full of unarmed civilians is a good place to start.

Yikes, that was a good bit of reading. The timeframe is different (centuries vs four years) but the principle is the same.